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Messages - Nike

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Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Any suggestions?
« on: June 01, 2001, 07:18:45 PM »
Re: Any suggestions?
Man, I feel ya.  (Oops, druggy words!)  There are not very many people who understand what the hell you're talking about, and fewer who care to listen.  My therapist had no clue.  I ran into a few people back in Michigan who had been in Straight, or who had a least heard about it, but almost nobody here has even heard about it.  My parents just get defensive when I bring it up.  Even a lot of ex-straightlings just don't want to be reminded of it.  I really had to talk about it for a while after I left, even if my friends were tired of hearing about it.  I've pretty much worked through it over the past 12 years, though.


I have heard that there were people in Florida who worked with Straight survivors, even before I went in, but I don't know who, where or if they are still around.  If you still live there, you might be able to find one.  Barring that, this is a good place to talk.


Given that you left in '90, it's not likely you'll go some place like that now, because you are no longer a minor.  Even if you were crazy or breaking the law, it's not likely, although you might end up in jail or hospital.  I do not know what problems you are dealing with, so there's no way for me to tell.  However, I doubt that they are any worse than ones I've had to deal with.


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Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Re: Straight in Plymouth, MI 1987
« on: June 01, 2001, 07:39:10 PM »
The last time I was back there, I went to the Burger King down the road, and there were a bunch of straightlings there, passing out balloons and Straight brochures like some cult!  (of course, that's what it was)

I asked one which phase he was on, and he stammered, then one of the older phasers recognized me and said, "He's a graduate, don't talk to him!"  Then they all ran away, terrified.  That was around 1993, which musta been shortly before they closed.


Even though I have been drug-free since I got out, I was banned from Straight right after I graduated because, while I was in the Building for "aftercare", I was overheard joking about being brainwashed.  Man, staff had no sense of humor!  I mean, none of us doubted that we had been brainwashed - the saying in Straight was that our brains needed washing.  Besides, I had studied brainwashing, and Straight was a textbook case for it.  They also didn't like that I had long hair, black leather and punk spikes. :-)


If you ever ate at any of the fast food joints an Ann Arbor Road, chances are you were served by phasers.  Since they have to get summer (or all year for older phasers) jobs on 4th phase and can't drive until 5th phase, that means that we all had to work on Ann Arbor Road, and most of the jobs there were in one of the 20 or so fast food restaurants.  I worked at Wendy's, Pizza Hut and Big Boy's, even though I had been in college and the Teamsters before Straight.  For a long time, I thought Ann Arbor Road was all there was to Plymouth!

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Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Straight in Plymouth, MI 1987
« on: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM »
Maybe we know each other.  My intake was July 9, 1987.  When I graduated on May 19, 1989, I was probably the oldest straightling ever.  Yeah, it was hell, but 1988 was a far worse hell than 1987, beginning with "Black Saturday" in January, which was right before my own "cop-out".  Once the restraint law was passed in Michigan, the place became a blood-bath.


What was really ironic was that there were several host homes in Pinckney, which is just down the road from Hell, Michigan.  I always thought of them as being the host homes from Hell! :-)


John

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